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Saffron finch

Onglets

Description

Distinguishing features

This bird has brilliant yellow plumage shading into orange on the head. It is distinguished by its large black eyes and its stout greyish beak. The female has slightly duller plumage with small spots or greyish lines.

Reproduction

The saffron finch nests in May. It builds its nest in a natural cavity in a tree, or it re-uses an abandoned nest (of a woodpecker or oriole, for example). The female lays three to five whitish eggs with a bluish tinge and small brown spots. The eggs hatch at two weeks. Seventeen days later, the feathers develop and after another two weeks, the young are independent.

Diet

The saffron finch forages on the ground where it forages for a variety of plants and many types of small seeds. Sometimes, groups of up to twenty individuals will feed together.

Predators

The predators of the saffron finch include raptors, cats and snakes.

Habitat

The saffron finch can be found in partly open areas that are sparsely covered with trees and shrubs, in agricultural areas, and in cities and towns where it comes to feed on lawns. The saffron finch lives in lowlands outside the Amazon Basin. Three distinct populations of saffron finch are found in separate geographic regions: the northern region of Colombia and Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru, and north-eastern Brazil and central Argentina.

Ecology, behaviour

The song of the saffron finch is repetitive and melodious, so much so that in certain regions, they are caught and put in cages so their song can be enjoyed. Because the males are aggressive with each other, they are often recruited for 'cockfights' where spectators bet on individual bird's chances of winning a fight. City dwellers greatly appreciate the saffron finch for the joyous warbling it brings to their neighbourhoods.

French name

Sicale bouton-d'or

Scientific name

Sicalis flaveola

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Birds

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Emberizidae

Size

Length: 14 cm

Status

Least concern (IUCN)

At the Biodôme

Only two saffron finches can be seen at the Biodôme. They can usually be found on the inga, the large tree located to the right of the path in the Goeldi's marmoset habitat, just after the bat cave exit. They are fed white and red millet seeds, colza and canary seed.